


Human Testing Initiative 2.0

by Portalis2



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, GLaDOS enjoys seeing him suffer, Guilt, Human!Wheatley, Regret
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:54:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22186669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Portalis2/pseuds/Portalis2
Summary: Wheatley is a moron. He truly is, no matter how much he denied it. And he knows because only a moron would betray their only friend the second they got the chance to. When he desperately wants a second chance, an opportunity to apologize to the lady and right his wrongs he gets more than he asked for when GLaDOS turns him into a human...
Relationships: Chell/Wheatley (Portal), chelley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 85





	1. Back at Aperture

Wheatley was lying on the white floor of _her_ chamber, his blue optic gazing at GLaDOS nervously, wondering which cruel punishment she was going to give him.

"I-I understand if you're angry, really, I do... let's be honest, I would be angry, too, if someone stole what is mine - okay, stole is a strong word - but... torturing and... and killing me won't change anything. Sure, you will satisfy your need for revenge, but... hehe... I didn't mean to do any of this at all. I just wanted to give you, um, a little, tiny break. You know, you deserved a break after all your testing. I know how... how exhausting it is. So I just wanted to give you a little break! You're... not buying any of that, are you?" He chuckled nervously.

The Intelligence Dampening Sphere knew he had messed up pretty badly. He had almost blown up the entire facility and she wasn't known for being a very forgiving machine. After all she had killed so many people with neurotoxin after being woken up the first few times. First it had just been a lot of employees with their daughters on the 'Bring your daughter to work day', then she had murdered almost every scientist with her deadly gas on the next occasion she got. The survivors were put into testing 'for science' as she claimed. Every core knew she had done it because she hated humans and loved testing because she enjoyed seeing humans suffer and die. And it was quite obvious she hated him even more after takeover.

He knew he shouldn't expect to be forgiven by anyone. Not after almost killing his best friend. The only friend he ever had. But he hoped she would accept his apology, so they could be friends again. Wheatley just wished he had a chance to apologize to her. He had been bossy and monstrous. What he did was hard for him to understand now that he was free from the mainframe again.

Wheatley regretted being transferred into GLaDOS' body. He regretted never once asking for the test subject's name or at least looking it up while he was in control of the facility. But he regretted betraying his only friend and trying to kill her on multiple occasions the most.

He doubted that GLaDOS would give him the chance to talk to the lady and apologize, but he still wanted to try and ask her to let him see her. Wheatley couldn't do anything as a core as long as he wasn't on his management rail. He was helpless and weak. And he really hated feeling helpless.

Back when he was the one holding the strings he had deemed himself an unbeatable genius. What could possibly beat him, Wheatley, the one who was in control of the whole facility now? A small potato and a human test subject, apparently. He should have seen it coming. If someone beat GLaDOS, out of all the threats in Aperture Science, then he was a simple nobody who had simply been put in charge after a core transfer. And where did he end up?

First, he was sent to space with a corrupted core that just wouldn't shut up about space to spent the rest of his life in there. An eternity of not being able to communicate with anyone who could actually understand what he said. Then, GLaDOS had a sudden change of heart and decided it wasn't such a good punishment after all and made her testing robots take him back to earth. The core was pretty sure the blue one was still floating in space after the portal was closed, but he knew how easily the robots could be replaced by a newer version.

He glanced at the robot that hang from the ceiling. GLaDOS focused on a monitor right in front of her. He couldn't see much from the ground, but he was certain that the two figures she was watching were the two testing robots. Orange and blue as she called them. He was pretty sure they had different names, but GLaDOS just didn't give anyone the privilege of being called by their actual name, no matter if they were human or not.

Wheatley was quite surprised she hadn't responded to him yet. Normally she would just make some sort of comment about him being a complete moron. Was she just ignoring him in favor of her two robots? Or... or did she decide to stay quiet because she actually forgave him and just didn't know how to respond because she was bad at being nice?

"Well, er... judging by your lack of any kind of response I'm just assuming you forgive me which is... which is great, yeah! And I would be very grateful if you, um, let me talk to the lady for a while. Just, er, put me on a management rail and I will look for her. But it would be helpful if you told me where she is."

 _"Stop talking or I will put you in the room where all the robots scream at you, you moron. It’s your choice.”_ Her cold, mechanic voice echoed through the chamber as she finally turned in his direction. _“_ _It's been a while._ _I'm surprised that you are still in such a good condition after being left in space for a month. Your little space friend must have been annoyed by you after a while."_

"Oh, you know, I was built to be resistant to all sorts of things," Wheatley replied. His optic darted across the room, searching for any kind of escape. He probably should have looked for an exit as soon as he got here, but he hadn't actually thought about that until now. "The humans wanted me to be always fully functional if they, um, needed me. That's how I managed to not go offline when you tried to break me during your awake-"

 _"Oh, yes, of course they would try to make something that would weaken me hard to kill. A moron whose only function is to make me dumber. Interesting. I could just throw you in the incinerator. The morality core was incinerated completely when I was murdered."_ She moved her head up and down like she was nodding to herself.

His optic widened in fear. "NONONO! DON'T DO THAT! DON'T DO THAT! IT WOULD KILL- I-I mean, this... this won't kill me! You can't possibly get rid of me like that! The scientists made me indestructible." Yeah, that sounded good. It was pretty believable. She would definitely fall for that. Definitely.

 _"You're such a horrible liar. It's actually kind of sad. Even 'Test Subject Name Here' was a better liar than you and she couldn't even talk."_ Her voice was a mix of boredom and amusement.

"I'm not lying! I was telling the truth! I- wait, d-did you just say... 'was'?" Wheatley stared up at her in disbelief. "Was as in... not there anymore? As in... dead?"

 _"Did you really expect her to still be alive after everything that happened?"_ she asked. _"I know you have your issues with giving actual thoughts to things, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”_

"B-but you two worked together! You couldn't just kill her! Sure, she's just a smelly human and you hate humans- I don't blame you for that, humans die so easily because they are so ridiculously fragile, especially those inside the relaxation chambers - but the lady helped you! Why would you just-?!"

GLaDOS sighed dramatically. _"I never claimed to have killed her, you moron. Believe me, she knew I would most likely kill her as soon as I was put in charge again. But I didn't. I didn't have to as you already did me that favor. Who would have known that causing an explosion and forcing her to enter a vacuum would be more affective against that mute lunatic than neurotoxin?"_

And for the first time since he had come back to earth, Wheatley kept his mouth closed. He looked away, trying to process what she had just said. The lady was dead. The stubborn, brain damaged test subject that jumped around without a break to solve the tests had died thanks to him. He had succeeded in killing her without even knowing. She would never get to hear his apology. The lady was... gone. Dead. She died with her former enemy by her side, knowing that her best friend betrayed and tried to kill her. She must have hated him.

 _“You’re so quiet. And you are shaking, too. I didn’t expect you to be so emotional about it. She was just a mute, dangerous monster and the facility is a better place with her gone. You betrayed her the first chance you got. Why do you care?”_ GLaDOS tilted her head. _“After all, she’s just a smelly human.”_

“S-she didn’t deserve to die!” Wheatley shouted. “She was so close to getting out! She fought you and... and murdered you! She fought me! She was supposed to... supposed to escape...” He gave a sudden sob.

“Why... why don’t you just kill me by putting me in your incinerator?” Wheatley asked quietly. “I thought you wanted to torture and kill me...?” He knew she was already torturing him. She tested the effects of her mocking words, how much they hurt him. Wheatley hated the feeling of guilt they caused. He just couldn’t get rid of it now that it was there. When he couldn’t even apologize because of his actions, what could he even do?

 _"Yes, but where would be the science in that? I have already figured out cores get destroyed in high temperatures. There’s nothing more to find out. Human testing is way more efficient.”_ She looked at him in a weird way.

Wheatley glanced up at her in confusion. “And you’re saying I’m a moron. All the humans are gone! They died. You killed them. You won’t get to do tests with any of them anymore. You have your bloody testing bots for that! The only person that was left in here was the lady. She was... the last human alive...” He looked on the ground in shame.

_“Yes, she was. But we can change that.”_

The core glanced up at her. “What-?” He was interrupted by an agonizing pain that suddenly shot through his little core body. Wheatley let out a long, pained scream. His vision slowly started to fade as he went offline.

_“Very good, Orange...”_


	2. A new test subject

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry for not updating for so long. I was busy and couldn’t get to writing for a while.

She watched in anticipation as he subconsciously moved his new body. So far so good. Everything was functioning as it should. There had been no errors. The body hadn't lost a lot of blood or died during the operation. The procedure had been a success.

It was so fascinating to her how many new possibilities it opened for her. A new type of test. You might even call it an experiment. When the moron managed to kill himself in one of the test which would undoubtedly happen sooner or later, she'd be able to use more spheres to transfer their consciousness.

The concept wasn't unfamiliar to her, of course. She had faint memories of another one taking place. It was similar, but only with the basic concept. What if one's consciousness was put into something that lacked this consciousness?

The mind of an innocent woman had been put into a robotic shell against her will. Now the mind of a moronic core had been put into a human shell against his will. The cycle was complete. The debt was finally paid. Still, she had her suspicions about how many times the mind transfer had actually taken place. The procedure must have been tested quite a few times before. And the cores acted too much like humans to always have been AIs.

Though she had to admit, she would have preferred using Cave Johnson's body or one of the lead scientists to this body, but that wasn't an option anymore. Time and neurotoxin were to blame for that. She had been too bloodthirsty. Too angry. Too impatient. Maybe she could have found Doug Rattman's body, but she had lost him after the test subject Chell had murdered her. She didn't want to waste her time on a scientist who was most likely dead.

The body of a scientist apprentice who had been hired weeks before she flooded the facility with neurotoxin should be enough. After all, a scientist was still a scientist, no matter how experienced. It was fitting to make two things she hated one. That way, she would get to combine better bodies and minds soon. First, she needed to get rid of the annoying glitches in the system.

GLaDOS slowly turned her body to look at Orange and Blue. They had been playing their childish human games again, but quickly stood straight when they noticed her eye on them. Upon noticing that Blue's hand still formed a scissor, Orange proceeded to grab his arm and hide it behind his own back.

_"Your humanoid behavior will not help me anymore, so stop acting this way unless you want to end up in the incinerator."_

They both stared at her in confusion before turning to each other and talking through their beeping. She had forgotten how simple their minds were. They were built for testing and nothing else.

 _"I want you to put him in test chamber one. Just drop him on the floor like garbage. That is where he belongs after almost destroying my facility."_ Blue reluctantly stepped forward. He used one of his fingers to poke the moron in the stomach. The human growled and both robots took a step backwards. _"Do not wake him up. Just pick him up and take him to the elevator."_ It was getting harder for her to hide her annoyance.

She watched with a narrowed optic as Blue slowly picked the body up. It held him over his shoulder like janitors carried their ladders. They both rushed inside the elevator. She let it move downwards at a faster speed than usual, but she was starting to get impatient.

She wanted to test him and see him fail. The sooner he was dead the better. She saw no necessity in keeping him here. Originally she had had a whole plan to torture him until his metal was rusty and his body full of glitches, but with his level of intelligence she doubted it would affect him as much as she had hoped. No, it was best just to get rid of him and be done with her problem immediately. If he actually survived all of her tests, he could go. This much, she had learned by dealing with the test subject that had killed her. If you can’t beat someone, just make sure they aren’t around you anymore to kill you or put you into a potato.

Through her camera, she watched as the elevator reached its destination. The two robots walked out of it as soon as the doors opened. They both looked around before they both made their way to the door that lead to the relaxation chamber. Blue dropped the body on the floor. Then it glanced at its companion. Orange pointed at the cube on the floor and beeped.

 _“No, you are not supposed to solve this puzzle. It is not yours.”_ Confused beeps were directed at her. Her optic narrowed as she activated their mechanism to blow up. She watched in annoyance as pieces of them flew in every direction. It was stupid what she had to do to make sure this idiot would at least get to solve a test for his level of intelligence. But she wanted to see how long it took him to solve this simple test and give him a rating for it.

Movement from the human body caught her interest. The explosion had woken him up. She was almost amused how he moved his limbs. He stretched them and pulled them back with a speed she hadn’t thought was possible. Was he trying to replicate how he normally moved his body? Of course he hadn’t noticed that he was human yet.

_“Slept well, moron? I hope you didn’t dream about blowing up my facility with your stupidity again.”_

He shrieked. It was fascinating how he seemed to notice everything at once. He crawled to the wall and slowly managed to sit up, leaning his back against the wall. His whole body was shaking. The moron raised a hand and held it in front of his face, staring at it in disbelief. He opened his mouth to stammer his usual nonsense, but he hadn’t mastered the art of speaking with a mouth yet, so all that came out were a bunch of strange noises. It was actually quite nice. He had no idea how to speak, therefore he couldn’t annoy her as much with his stupidity.

 _“I can’t imagine what you must be going through, suddenly being put in a fragile body. No, that’s a lie. I can.”_ GLaDOS didn’t try to hide her aggression. He should know that she was furious and this was her revenge. She wouldn’t have said the last part if she hadn’t been sure he wouldn’t have picked up the sarcasm otherwise.

A few minutes passed, but then the Intelligence Dampening Sphere raised his head and stared up at the camera, a pleading look on his face. _“It’s too late for apologies,”_ she said. _“So quit acting so pathetic. We need to start with the testing. Get up.”_

He didn’t seem to be a lost cause after all. He used his hands to grab onto the wall and pull himself up. His legs were shaking under his weight. She had forgotten how much body fat affected test subjects. The human body she had picked was on the chubbier side. She thought it was fitting him and his ego perfectly. She would have loved to make comments on his weight, calling him obese, but he doubted it would have any effect on him. If he had called her ‘an ugly, useless potato’ she wouldn’t have cared either. It was the thought that counted.

He made a step forward, still holding onto the wall. Then he made another step and his hands had to let go. Then he made another. And another. She had no idea how his legs didn’t just give in. Toddlers didn’t make it on first try, so why did he? It was unsatisfying not to see him fail.

He smiled at the camera. _“Congratulations on learning to walk. Something that humans learn immediately after they are born. You took way longer than them.”_ His smile dropped. He seemed uncertain, maybe even embarrassed. She wouldn’t tell him that he had surprised her. That he was actually pretty fast in learning it.


End file.
